MovieChat Forums > Mekagojira no gyakushu Discussion > Fascinating aspects to this movie

Fascinating aspects to this movie


I'm not an expert on these movies, I just enjoy them for what they are and I don't know them anywhere near as well as most of you guys will.

Having just seen Terror of Mechagodzilla I was blown away by what seemed like an attempt to comment on the nature of humanity and address deeply existential issues. It's as if the writer or director had much grander ambitions than producing just another monster mash. I'm not prone to reading too much into superficial movies but I couldn't get away from the almost Kubrickian undertones.

The scientist is disillusioned with humanity and attempts to destroy it (so he exhibits no humanity himself). His daughter is his moral conscience and a vocal advocate for mankind (so she is his humanity)... yet she's a cyborg. She fails to convince her father of our worth but when she is put in the position of being directly responsible for our destruction (when she's rewired and linked to Mechagodzilla) the father is unable to accept it. Not because he doesn't want us destroyed but because he doesn't want us destroyed by his beloved daughter, because he knows she wouldn't want it. So it's his feeling for a cyborg that elicits his humanity. In the end she must sacrifice her 'life' so mankind can prevail.

So there's an effective examination of the moral difference between human and machine, of what humanity means. There's a fascinating extension of this that touches on free will and organic/mechanic interaction in the way the daughter is made to control Mechagodzilla. There's a seemingly illogical switch in expectations in the way a cyborg has such a profound effect on the feelings of a human. And there's a genuine emotional resonance in the Christ parable that concludes the film (her sacrificing herself for mankind).

Awesome!

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Sorry nobody responded till now but ..... Welcome to Godzilla movies . A lot of them have much deeper undertones and themes then just monsters duking it out . Even Godzilla vs the smog monster was very anti pollution ... Or Godzilla vs biollante should man be tampering with cloning and Dna . Glad you enjoyed it as this is honestly one of my fav Godzilla films . Many of the reason for that being what your describing . Ishiro Honda was a great director .

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A lot of them have much deeper undertones and themes then just monsters duking it out .


I think they tend to lose a lot of their depth in the dubbing process. A lot of dubbed lines tended to come out a bit cheesy, which made it more difficult (for an American viewer like myself, at least) to connect to the serious and/or emotional message that was interspersed between the slugging matches. And when watched in the original Japanese with subtitles, it's difficult to tell how well or poorly the actors are performing.

I'm glad you dug down and responded to this old thread, Godzillaswrath; it's given me a chance to reflect on the subject.

- Crazy. All crazy but I'm.

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